blaqfair logo  
 
Home About Us eMail
 
  Kwame Sasu Wiredu, another death in custdoy
By John Leider
Each repressive regime has its citadels of brutality and death. In the apartheid era, Port Elizabeth police station, eastern Cape, South African, was one of them. In September 1977, police officers stationed there beat Steve Biko, a 30-year-old black anti-apartheid campaigner, causing him head injuries. Biko later died from brain haemorrhage.

For UK-blacks, Stoke Newington police station in Hackney, London, is notorious for being the station where black suspects are least likely to walk from alive. No fewer than eight black suspects have died after having come into contact with police officers based at that station.

On 30 August 2002, Kwame Sasu Wiredu, a 23-year-old student, became the latest black victim to die in suspicious circumstances.

Mr Wiredu was involved in an incident at a Sainsbury's store in Dalston, east London.

The police arrested him. They took him to Stoke Newington police station. He told the police he was suffering from stomach pain. A police doctor examined him. The doctor claimed that Wiredu was healthy enough to stay in police custody.

Police later found Wiredu collapsed in his cell. He was taken by ambulance to Homerton Hospital where doctors pronounced him dead.

A post mortem examination carried out on 31 August 2002 gave the interim cause of death as cardiomyopathy, a chronic disorder affecting the heart muscles.

No police officer will be held accountable for the death of Kwame Sasu Wiredu. The Metropolitan police propaganda section will set about character assassinating the decease. That much black Britons can predict with the certainty based on earlier deaths in police custody.

Before Wiredu, Roger Sylvester, a 30-year-old council worker, was the last black man to die in the custody of Stoke Newington police. Within days of his death the police set about characterising him as a mentally ill drug abuser. An officer involved in the case destroyed evidence. To date no police officers have been charged in connection with the death of Roger Sylvester.

The police will continue to act with impunity until ordinary blacks folks find the courage to build an independent organisation which campaigns for civil rights.

Our liberty is too precious to entrust it to "community leaders" who we did not elect nor appoint to speak on our behalf.

We must organise to survive.

Aseta Simms N/A 13/05/1971
Michael Ferreira 19 10/12/1978
Colin Roach N/A 12/01/1983
Vandana Patel 21 29/04/1991
Oluwashiji Lapite 34 16/12/1994
Roger Sylvester 30 18/01/1999
Sara Thomas 34 06/08/1999
Kwame Sasu Wiredu 30 30/08/2002